Powder Snow
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Like anywhere, GNSS can have persistent highs but the geography is very well suited to a good likelihood of scoring awesome snow. The tenure receives an average of 16m of snow per season, which is rather remarkable. There’s something about this region that provides a “fridge effect” to keep the snow cold, and the altitude is OK, although the top elevation is a few hundred metres lower than some of the other snowcat operations in the general vicinity.
The terrain has the full breadth of aspects, although there is a decent proportion of slopes including the front face that are a little too south facing. Our warm up and home runs were on the front face, and we could certainly notice the effect of the sun. Meanwhile on the shady slopes, the powder was pristine! It wasn’t deep but oh so silky and absolutely magical ego snow.
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Overall Terrain
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Overall the terrain at Great Northern Snowcat Skiing was quite impressive, and even though we sometimes repeated runs, the variety of the terrain is exceptional with respect to the range of pitch and the spacing of the trees. Unlike many cat skiing operators where it’s predominantly tight-ish trees, GNSS has the full gamut of slope types. Ingress into runs was really easy and snowboarder friendly, and other than Rosie’s traverse which is a horror for snowboarders, most runs just finished nicely at the cat road.
The guides really, really emphasised the need to stack tracks (ie within a pole’s length apart), which was OK on the open slopes, but barely anyone got true fresh tracks in more wooded areas or through choke points, and it’s so old-fashioned to have your line or turn shape dictated by those who’ve S-ed before you. The snow farming nervousness of the guides seemed to suggest that the terrain wasn’t big enough, which was further compounded by the recent addition of a snowcat for day cat skiing.
The tenure size is very reasonable at 7,500 hectares although this is less than the average for a BC cat ski operator (9,250 hectares) and GNSS don’t use all their terrain. We’d point at some tasty looking lines, but the guides said they never go there because there are no snowcat roads. To further shrink the size of the terrain, not all the snowcats roads were in
even though it was mid January, there’d been plenty of snow, and they have a dedicated road building cat.
GNSS describes their niche as being chilled out skiing and pride themselves on not keeping track of the vertical skied each day. This was somewhat apparent because even though their website cites that 12,000 to 15,000 vertical feet is covered each day, we barely did half of this. Across the 3 days we did 6,160ft, 6,650ft and 6,620ft (average 1,974m – the equivalent of 1.15 top-to-bottom runs at Revelstoke Mountain). This is absolutely fine for riders looking for unhurried quality powder turns, but probably not ideal for powder hungry fit experts.
A few factors contributed to the amount of vertical: the snowcat ride up in the morning was a little longer than some other cat ski operators at 45-55 minutes; very short runs; the transitions between runs were really slow; the operation attracts intermediate powder riders; there was a lot of re-grouping on short runs; and lunch and morning coffee/break were taken outside.
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| Alpine Terrain |
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| Like most Canada cat skiing outfits, Great Northern Snowcat Skiing doesn’t have much true alpine terrain that they access. A lot of the terrain is sub-alpine with smatterings of trees, so it rides very much like the alpine. Most runs are very short, but the open slopes run the full range of pitch from mellow to steep, and there are a few chutes to keep it interesting. And many of these open lines are north facing with gorgeous snow. |
| Tree Skiing |
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| Open zones are more the forte of GNSS than tree skiing. Many of the slopes have very very widely spaced trees, which is ideal for those not 100% confident with their powder turns, but it didn’t feel like “tree skiing”. The terrain also included moderately spaced trees, and some true “tree skiing” where the trees were tight enough to provide some challenging fun. We enjoyed the “Darkside” in particular, with its perfect snow and steep ideally spaced trees. Unfortunately we only got to do a little of this lovely tree skiing when a couple of the group members sat out runs in the snowcat. |
Strong Intermediate Terrain
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| Great Northern Snowcat Skiing is ideal for strong intermediate skiers and snowboarders, particularly those who think they may be fitness challenged or a bit slow. A leisurely speed of the day, ego snow and rolling open terrain should make strong intermediates very comfortable, and there are also steeper open glades to provide a bit of challenge to progress. |
Advanced Terrain
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| Pros for the terrain include the huge amount of variety of moderately pitched terrain and the great mix of runs with respect to tree spacing. |
Expert & Extreme Terrain
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Great Northern Snowcat Skiing has some steep expert tree skiing that’s delightful (but less steeps compared with mellow terrain). Whether you get to ride it is very dependent on the make-up of the group, so ideally, experts should get together their own posse and book out the whole cat.
Experts could have a really fun time at GNSS but there are probably better BC cat ski operations that are targeted to experts. For group cats, the fact that the GNSS website cites that “previous powder experience is not required” is a strong indicator that the operation is likely to attract riders that may not want to ride steep challenging terrain. Some experts may also be inadequately satiated by the minimal amount of vertical each day.
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| Guiding |
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| The lead guide was very professional and incredibly experienced and competent, and it was easy to feel comfortable that he had safety fully taken care of. He provided clear and concise directions. Unfortunately the tail guide would then contradict the lead guide and provide other instructions – we quickly learned to pay little heed. The tail guide didn’t undertake other usual tail guide tasks such as ensuring everyone was with their tree buddy or ensuring everyone was getting their fair share of powder (some powder pigs went first or second on every run and the tail guide was oblivious). |
| Cat |
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Whilst not “state of the art”, the snowcat and rear cabin were more than adequate and comfortable. Pros included: a very smooth ride; good storage with various hooks and spots to put items; nice heater; well insulated cabin so minimal noise; plenty of light; and windows that opened. Cons included: no back up snowcat with a cabin in the event of a break down; and one of the 3 rows of seats were backward facing, which wasn’t that comfortable when going uphill (new state of the art cabins have all forward facing seats). Even though the snowcat had side entrances which usually makes it more difficult to get in and out, they used milk crates as a step which made it a bit easier. A bungy cord or hook to keep the doors open would have made exit/access easier.
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Avalanche Mitigation Strategies
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It could be assumed that considering the extensive experience of the lead guides in working in the highly regulated BC mechanised skiing industry, that the procedures for snow safety are top notch, and that they utilise a well developed avalanche info management system. However this wasn’t particularly evident to guests and not discussed at the start of the day or as part of run selection. The guides did some ski cutting and dug a few snow pits, but the findings weren’t shared with guests unless someone specifically asked.
All guests were provided with a beacon, shovel, probe and radio.
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Safety Briefing
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The safety briefing was reasonable and covered the basics. To use time wisely, part of the briefing was provided in the snowcat which was good although it didn’t cover what to do if you’re the one caught in the avalanche.
The on-snow practical briefing was comprehensive but very time inefficient and disorganised, and the tail guide often contradicted himself so some guests may have come away rather confused.
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Frills
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| The lunch time options and snacks were somewhat simple, and not quite like the gourmet treats you see at other cat skiing operations. A water bottle was provided and filled up, and hot drinks were provided. They had a reasonable range of powder skis on offer, although strangely the poles didn’t have powder baskets. No photography service was provided. |
| Accommodation |
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We really loved the lodge. There was nothing fancy or grandiose about it, and there’s no hot tub or massage services, but it was so functional and had such a delightful vibe. The communal area was huge, so there was plenty of space to find a sociable or quiet zone whether that be on the couches in front of the fire, the games area, or the tables for looking at photos of the day or doing a spot of work (the wifi was surprisingly really good). Everything was contained within the one building, so there was no putting the shoes on to run between lodges.
Generally for groups (ie not private charter), everyone can have their own room and all rooms have an ensuite bathroom.
The home-style meals were very nice without being hatted chef epicurean cuisine that you find at some operations. And going hungry was not an option because there was an abundance of food. Breakfast included pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cereal, fresh fruit, coffee, and juice. Appetizers were reasonably gourmet, and dinner was a multi-course affair with plenty of variety between the evenings.
The lodge had only a handful of staff, but they did a great job of multi-tasking and the guides pitched in to assist with meal service and plate clearing. The service was very adequate without being OTT, and it felt very family oriented. The den mother in particular was amazing!
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Value for Money
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| The cost of Great Northern Snowcat Skiing is much less than the average per diem for multi-day BC cat skiing (18-19 rates). This could be expected considering it’s not an uber luxe lodge, and you might lose some value if you’re looking for maximum vertical days, but overall it’s very well priced for what you get. A massively huge bonus is that you can BYO alcohol. |